15th Anniversary MKIV build thread - TROJAN

[frankeeski]

Well , redemption came yesterday and Hodgkins actually showed up at Miller's. Here are a few pictures with a bit of commentary.

First a picture of Miller wearing this seasons latest fashion in head wear.

Here Miller is installing the weather seal around the hood opening with Phil (David's brother and the car's owner) in the background with his head down asking WHEN IS LUNCH???!!!

A beautiful picture of the painted and striped underside of the hood.

And here is the last picture before it rolled back on to the trailer for it's journey home.

[KDubU]

Looks awesome! That colour combo really pops.

[68GT500MAN]

Looking great David. Can't wait to see it on the road with color and bling.
Doug

[David Hodgkins]

Here's a recap of last Sunday's trip to the Bat Cave.

First off a small note. I had to make some last minute decisions about how much of the chassis foot box and dash area I wanted to mount permanently. In my mind the body was going to have to come off so I had a lot of clecos holding the dash on, as well as the top and sides of the driver's foot box as well as the outer wall of the passenger foot box. The closer I got to the actual day of the pickup, the more clecos I replaced. It wasn't until an hour after we arrived at Jeff's and he was standing around waiting for me that I finally replaced all the clecos and riveted all the panels in place permanently, including silicone. I guess I was in denial. Now that the body is mounted, all I want to do is get it ready for the Snakes in the grass show coming up at the LA Arboretum October 3rd.

Here's the go-cart on the trailer. One last shot pre-bodied:


THE BIRTH OF TROJAN

We arrived at Jeff's about 8:45 in the AM and the body was sitting out front. The color is a deep Yellow with Crimson stripes in the colors of USC, my brother's alma mater. My brother owns the TROJAN license plate. He originally wanted to do a yellow with silver stripes and that would have worked nicely with the silver frame but since we are using that plate I thought why not go all in with the college theme? I hope fans of 'SC get a kick out of it and I pray it doesn't get abused by a Bruin fan!

BTW the phone camera is not able to pick up the actual color. Every pic I take shows the body brighter than real life. The shot of the nose below comes pretty close, if you look and the right-hand side of the pic:



The color really pops in pictures taken in the sunlight:



Heck, it pops in any light:


A MAJOR concern was whether I had guessed correctly when deciding where the polished stripes would be on the firewall and trunk wall. When I called Jeff to discuss engine turning the dash He told me to hold off because there was no way to know where the stripes will be! He goes by the body openings, not chassis center like I did. So I was anxious to find out what the final result was.

I lucked out. The stripes are perfectly centered. Check it out:



continued...

[David Hodgkins]

Here are a few more pics of the hood and trunk mounting. These shots give you an idea of how much color shift the camera had. It has a real problem processing yellow!









The weirdest thing happened while the body was being mounted. Some guy showed up, acted like he knew everybody, and then just stood around with his arms folded like he was wondering when his number was going to be called and mumbling to himself. It was kinda sad, really. Like he was wondering when his body would be painted. A guy like that probably has nightmares about grinding fiberglass and backing up into poles with your door open. Poor guy. He looked homeless...


Anyway, back at the shop...


continued...

[frankeeski]

The weirdest thing happened while the body was being mounted. Some guy showed up, acted like he knew everybody, and then just stood around with his arms folded like he was wondering when his number was going to be called and mumbling to himself. It was kinda sad, really. Like he was wondering when his body would be painted. A guy like that probably has nightmares about grinding fiberglass and backing up into poles with your door open. Poor guy. He looked homeless...

The way I hear it, that handsome dude was the only one that lifted a finger the entire day to help Miller. The rest of the those there just kept asking when lunch was? I here he was given some award or something for being so helpful.

[David Hodgkins]

The way I hear it, that handsome dude was the only one that lifted a finger the entire day to help Miller. The rest of the those there just kept asking when lunch was? I here he was given some award or something for being so helpful.

Shhhhhh... nobody look! It's one o' dem' der eeenternet trolls! Don't feed the troll!

Now where were we? Oh yeah. Back at the shop...

I put the build to bed with just a few more glamour shots. Still trying to capture that yellow...




In this shot, please note the awkward angle of the passenger side pipe. This became the next project, to fix that issue:


All tucked in for the night:

[jceckard]

Is it juvenile to say that it looks like it's having a really nice dream? You can try to tell me to get my mind out of the gutter, but it wouldn't do any good. It's attached to my body.

Very nice, by the way.

[David Hodgkins]

Continued...

To fix the passenger side pipe droop issue I got in touch with Mark Reynolds at Breeze automotive and he sent out a PLETHORA of inserts to use to in effect lengthen the passenger CAT. Three 1/4" straight inserts and three wedges. "Start with this and send me back what you don't use" he said. I bought 4 new 2-1/2" bolts and took the whole pile - plus another gasket - and bolted it up. Yeah, I know, I need to clean those pipes:


Wow, the difference is night and day. Look at the way the pipe fits now!

Passenger side:


Driver's side:


Passenger side body exit:


Driver's side body exit:


The passenger side pipe, fixed:

[David Hodgkins]

Here's last night's work:


Funny thing about the marker lights... I couldn't see a way to mount them so that the little plastic fins on the light could line up vertical and horizontal. It bugs me that they are offset and crooked:


I guess the easiest solution is to re drill the mounting holes?

[Jeff Kleiner]

David,
Ya' need a set of "O" rings for those marker lights---tell Miller I said so

Give me a shout when you have a minute to chat (812)327-zero393.

Jeff

[KDubU]

Hat is great news David! Really loving that paint now with everything together.

[David Hodgkins]

Kyle, if you need any reference pics of my Wilwoods let me know. I got mine from Gordon, although that was early 2008.

Just for reference I wanted to show a couple more shots of the pipe mounts.

Driver's side:


Passenger side:


This past weekend was a busy one, not all of it build related. I installed a new PC at my FIL's house and updated it to Windows 10. When they tell you on the screen to sit back and relax, they actually mean go get lunch and come back later! Other than that though, it upgraded no problem and found the local printer, installed the drivers set it as the default before I tried to print to it. So on a new machine install, the upgrade was flawless. I'm not so eager to try that to my development machine at work though!

Back at the shop, I took the rest of the powder coated parts I got back last week and assembled the Emergency Brake handle. I had never done one before, as my first build has a Lokar handle mounted on the top of the trans tunnel. I decided to go the factory route this time. I am getting some interference from the bolts that hold the outer part of the handle to the inner actuating part. Both bolts scrape against the tunnel. If anyone has a remedy for this please let me know. Otherwise I guess I'll be cutting some aluminum...



In this pic you can see how the handle is already skewed at an angle to the rest of the mechanism. Something here needs to change:


The rest of the install was just setting up the cables. I'll upload a few pics in a bit of that. I routed the cable around the outside or the shock. I don't want the cable to interfere with the shock springs and I was thinking of using safety wire to secure the cable to the base of the shock. Does that sound like a decent solution?

I also fixed a small routing issue I had with the trunk light harness (I hadn't secured it) and set up the fuel filler/lemans cap connection. I drilled/tapped a hole for a 1/4" bolt in the frame forward of where the splash guard will mount and removed some powder coat around the hole for the gas intake grounding strap. The grounding strap will have to go around the splash guard but it was the closest spot I cold see that had direct access to the frame steel. Everywhere else close by was aluminum-covered:



The fuel-to-gas-tank connection is so much nicer than my MKIII! Nice re-design. It went together in a snap and the Lemans cap accepts a normal size gas cap which is nice:

[Jeff Kleiner]

RE: the handle bolts rubbing aluminum--- install them from the other direction. The button heads won't protrude as much.

Jeff

[David Hodgkins]

RE: the handle bolts rubbing aluminum--- install them from the other direction. The button heads won't protrude as much.

Jeff

Yeah, I thought about that. It will help a little... I wonder if I bend the bracket if that will help?

Last night I drilled all the holes in the new seat brackets. The first ones I made had to be scrapped. These only have the one set of holes and I'm thinking of powdercoating them black, to fade into the carpet:

[David Hodgkins]

I didn't really do a lot yesterday. I took the seat brackets to the local powdercoater. I like these guys because they are small, seem to do a good job and are way less expensive than the other place that is 20 miles away. I'm just having them shot in black to blend in to the carpet.

Other than that, I just cleaned the shop until I got a call about "stuff" at home and used that as an excuse to take the rest of the night off. Believe it or not, this is "clean":


I'll be getting the brackets back before Friday. With any luck the lights will be functional by then and I'll be working on the new dash. This weekend the windshield should be going in and I'll have less than 2 weeks to finish up details before the Arboretum show.

[David Hodgkins]

Well hello again, I spent most of the weekend at the shop and was able to get a few things done...

On Saturday I tore apart the temporary das dash in preparation of finally engine turning and installing the custom dash. I also changed out the front quick jacks (AKA shin bashers) for over riders and the front bumper hoop. The dash harness needed a bit of a wire diet so it was nice to organize and simplify the wiring a bit. It's still a rats nest, but not quite as bad. I'll work on cleaning up the runs as I get ready to put the dash in.

I decided to go full dress on the front and it turned out really nice. Not a difficult job to do so no in-progress shots, just these three shots of the finished product:







I'll be adding a shroud for the opening. I'm planning to make it a wrap-around and will be adding some engine turning with stripes to it. If I get the rest of the car prepped for October 3rd I'll try adding that piece otherwise it will have to wait until later in October before I get to it. I would like to note how once again the kit improved from MKII to MKIV. The bumper is even side to side and the over riders extend from the body the same distance, which fixes a problem with pre MKIV's.

After I installed the bumper I spent some time trying to attach wires to the coupe tail lights I have and it was a minor disaster. I'll open a separate thread to discuss the issue I'm having...

The last thing I did on Saturday was to set up and start the dash engine turning, which I'll describe in the next post...

[David Hodgkins]

Late Saturday and through Sunday I worked on the dash. I've always wanted the dash to have some type of pattern... I wanted to do a racing stripe but the reflection from the sun made that impossible. I did some experimentation with reversing the pattern of the engine turning that resulted in a cool 3-d effect of the stripes so I decided to move forward with that stratagy. The only thing I changed was the way I taped off the stripes. In the test piece the stripes had a very small demarcation line showed up between the stripes. I decided to tape off the piece to eliminate that line. The procedure was a success but the resulting pattern is - IMO - too subtle. I'd HATE to do this over, especially since it doesn't involve a real "mistake"! I'm looking for some feedback on how you think this dash looks, so be honest and let me know what you think.

I have tons of pics in my album, but here are some that stand out from the rest. Here's a detailed shot of the outer pin stripes:


And here's several shots of the whole dash:










What do you think?

[Al_C]

I'm a Big 10 fan, but this car is absolutely stunning! Incredible job, David!

[Jazzman]

Ok, David, I'll be the first to pick up your challenge. (Just remember, opinions are like navels - everybody's got one!) I love engine turning, and I love all the amazing work you have done on this car. I even considered doing an engine turned dash. Now having seeing it, I have two observations. 1) I am very worried that the glare off that beautiful dash would require the driver to wear welding goggles! 2) I agree with you: the stripes are too subtle. They don't stand out as stripes, but rather look like the pattern got confused at that point. It is, however, a pretty amazing optical illusion. They really do look like they are 3 dimensional!

[David Hodgkins]

Ok, David, I'll be the first to pick up your challenge. (Just remember, opinions are like navels - everybody's got one!) I love engine turning, and I love all the amazing work you have done on this car. I even considered doing an engine turned dash. Now having seeing it, I have two observations. 1) I am very worried that the glare off that beautiful dash would require the driver to wear welding goggles! 2) I agree with you: the stripes are too subtle. They don't stand out as stripes, but rather look like the pattern got confused at that point. It is, however, a pretty amazing optical illusion. They really do look like they are 3 dimensional!

I'm going to go ahead and mount this dash because I have a show in 12 days - ACK! - and after that I'll re-assess the dash situation. I have an engine turned bezel around my gauges on my car and it's definitely bright but not overwhelming. I'll just have to see if the dash is too bright, and if it is I'll just do another one.

Thanks for the honest opinion though I appreciate the feedback.

[David Hodgkins]

Yesterday I found a local place that had a nice 14" air cleaner. It has "COBRA" stamped on the top and it seems nice and sturdy. The filter element is yellow, which is a nice bonus:





I also started mounting the splash guards on the front. Can you believe it's been 9 years since I got my first kit and I STILL haven't mounted them?!? These fit very nicely out of the gate and should be done this evening:

[68GT500MAN]

David, you asked for opinions on the dash, so here is mine. I do NOT like the current dash! The stripes get lost and it makes me dizzy looking for them. I like the way you did the other panels much better.
Doug

[kkcalm5]

David
I like the engine turn on the dash but like others not sure about the stripes
just a thought what about doing the stripes in the red down thru the dash? with the engine turn for the rest (yellow area)
by the way the car is fantastic, your work is unbelievable, keep it up
Kevin

[6t8dart]

i agree with the stripes looking odd, maybe paint on red stripes, leave the rest engine turned?

[David Hodgkins]

What do you guys think of this?



I've been thinking of ways to try and save it too. What do you think of an ultra-fine matching yellow and cardinal pinstripes outlining the stripes?

[David Hodgkins]

I tried a mockup in paint that looked like... but what about a fine silver pinstripe to break up the stripes?

[jceckard]

What about paint over the turning with candy paint to match body and stripe color?

[David Hodgkins]

What about paint over the turning with candy paint to match body and stripe color?

Hmm....

I don't think that would work. I've already applied the sharkhide.

[6t8dart]

sharkhide can be removed with lacquer thinner according to their website.

[Joe Procopio]

Wow, great work David.

[David Hodgkins]

Yesterday I finally found an upholstery shop near my build shop that has the time to lay in the cockpit carpet. I'll be dropping it off on Monday and will get it back Wednesday. Which means two of my prep days are now shot!

Last night I finished putting on the front splash guards. It's hard to see in this shot with all the reflections but what you DON'T see is the wheel:


...and I also added in the under-door aluminum:

[David Hodgkins]

Last night I went out and found some sound dampening material for the cockpit. I'm going to install it myself before giving the car to the carpet guy. I returned to the shop and proceeded with the install. First I cleaned up the whole cockpit, took out the seat belts and brackets and moved most of the dash wiring out of the way. I also turned around the two bolts on the e-brake arm as suggested by Jeff Kleiner. Simple fix, and no more rubbing.

These are the last pics of the silver aluminum cockpit, with all my perfect rivet patterns showing. That's a funny part about the build. I took the time to measure, center and align all those rivets only so that I could slap these sound panels on top of them and hide all that "craftmanship" forever. Hey, I guess that's part of what build pics are for... sniff, sniff:









Now with that out of the way I moved on to installing the Hushmat. It's the typical foil and tar-like goop backing. The interesting thing about it is that the foil is black. That's pretty cool because that's a perfect color for underneath black carpet.

I used a 5/8" hollow center punch to create the holes for the seat bracket mounting bolts:







Looks like I'll finish the Hushmat install today. That leaves the weekend to put on the rear splashguards, rear bumper, make an under-dash panel, wire the lights and install the windshield. I'll put the dash back together after I get the car back from carpet.

BTW I opened the windshield box for the first time last night. It's been sitting for over 4 years. No crack! (Hey, ya never know).

[Jeff Kleiner]

...BTW I opened the windshield box for the first time last night. It's been sitting for over 4 years.

Wow, pretty gutsy to go all the way through paint without a test fit to check the location, size and shape of the factory cut windshield post holes!

Jeff

[David Hodgkins]

Wow, pretty gutsy to go all the way through paint without a test fit to check the location, size and shape of the factory cut windshield post holes!

Jeff

Yeah but even if I have to do a little cutting none of it will show...


I hope.

[David Hodgkins]

oh BTW I forgot: Jeff used a piece of metal shaped like a windshield post to check the holes...

[CDXXVII]

oh BTW I forgot: Jeff used a piece of metal shaped like a windshield post to check the holes...

Dave

Let me know how the windshield goes. Mine has got me a bit freaked out. I have two pieces of metal that are shaped like the windshield posts clamped in place through body openings that I massaged a bit to get them to fit. Only issue is that the simulated legs are NOT the same as the windshield when the factory legs are attached. In my case the windshield legs are splayed out (pigeon toed \ / ) to where the holes in the body will have to be closer together in the rear as apposed to the front. (Not Parallel) They are also a bit wider apart on the windshield than the mounting points on the frame. Right now it looks like I will have to bend the legs parallel to one another and also try and twist the legs square to one another. Otherwise you are looking at shims and pretty big openings in the body. I keep poking around on the forum and am still not comfortable with getting it done.

I am hoping you get this done so I can copy you and worry less. Selfish I know, but you are under the gun and I am just cruising along.

[David Hodgkins]

Tonight's progress...

I was rudely interrupted by my brother who showed up to pay the deposit on the carpet install and he forced me to go to dinner at the Bluewater Grill in Newport. (nom nom) I made the most of my predicament by ordering the steamed clams which were amazing. But still. Valet cost me $3. Oh well.

I made my retreat back to the shop and made progress but didn't finish the Hushmat install. I'm probably 3 hrs behind starting tomorrow. Precious few day left!

[KDubU]

Pressure is on David, get er done!

[David Hodgkins]

It's been a LONG weekend!

I spent all Saturday and part of Sunday laying out the sound mat for the carpet install that starts today. I also installed the lic. plate holder and built, installed and wired up the Coupe tail lights. The brake pedal has been pushed so far forward that the tail light switch is engaged full time. I took the lights out as to not waste the battery. I also took time to clean the shop and had the car outside for the first time since getting back from Miller's.

Here's a bunch of shots of last weekend's work...

Almost completely covered. I got that last little bit by the door striker after this shot was taken:



I included this dark shot because it's the closest I've seen to the actual body color in a pic:



Let's face it: this stuff is just ugly. I do like the nice "thunk" the panels make when you rap them with your knuckles now though!



Installed the rear splash guards:



FINALLY put the spinners on!



Coupe tail lights and Lic. plack bracket installed. It's nice working at eye level! Looks like I'll have to drop the tank to install the bumper...



Finally seeing the light of day...



Somehow I got the car to the upholsterer 2 blocks away. I pushed it. Yeah, that's it. I pushed it...